Back in January, during the CES, Huawei publically showed its E5 wireless modem the first time and during last week's Mobile World Congress, Huawei showed it again as the "Huawei E5830 Wireless Modem". The Huawei E5 is the center of personal connection and the ideal mobile broadband solution for everybody wanting high-speed UMTS/HSPA wireless connectivity, anytime and anywhere. Like Novatel'sMiFi, the Huawei E5 acts as a portable WiFi b/g hotspot on one side but unlike Novatel's MiFi, the E5 only supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as singleband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at 2100 MHz on the other side, which - nevertheless - makes it quite sufficient for Europeans today.

For a better overview, the E5 sports 5 colored LED which indicates WiFi and WWAN connectivity and activity, battery status as well as a roaming indicator which comes handy if you are close to a country border.Featuring a 1500 mAh battery, the E5 is expected to operate something around 4 hours. However, the device can also be used as a traditional USB modem by directly connecting it to a PC or Mac (where the required connection software is installed from the E5 but using the device as a USB modem disables WiFi sharing capabilities). Last but not least, the E5 comes with a microSD card slot which allows to use the device as a storage device with a storage capacity of up to 32 GB.

The Huawei E5/E5830 isn't yet available but should be launched soon. According to Huawei, around 40 operators from around the world has been placed an agreement with Huawei. Furthermore, Huawei's first wireless modem is expected to be released soon by Expansys.com.